The only thing consistent about this year's Buckeyes is their inconsistency.

Sophomore forward Sam Thompson went for a team-high 16 points on 6 of 7 shooting at Penn State, giving birth to hopes of a breakout performance. But three days later, he backslid against Wisconsin, attempting only one shot (missing it) and grabbing one rebound in 23 minutes.

Junior point guard Aaron Craft has struggled with his shot most of this season, and has been held scoreless twice, but he made 6 of 7 at Purdue and played well against Wisconsin en route to 13 points and seven rebounds.

Junior guard Lenzelle Smith Jr. can score 17 points on Nebraska and 12 on Iowa. He can also grabbed 10 rebounds against Purdue and Michigan, but he can't combine the big scoring and rebounding against the same team.

Sophomore center Amir Williams can play 17 minutes against Iowa - and block six shots - but finish with no rebounds.

Sophomore LaQuinton Ross can miss one shot like he did against Nebraska or Purdue, or he can miss every shot like against Illinois or all but one against Penn State. He's capable of four turnovers against Iowa or none against Wisconsin.

Sophomore point guard Shannon Scott is capable of any number of brilliant plays, but in the final seconds at Michigan State he made a horrific decision, throwing up a wild heave in the final seconds of a 59-56 loss. He can go for 15 points on an elite team like Kansas or he can go scoreless against a Big ten cellar-dweller like Nebraska.

Lone senior Evan Ravenel has scored 11 points on Purdue and Iowa, but he was also of little consequence against Illinois and Michigan State.

Outside of junior Deshaun Thomas, who leads the Big Ten in scoring and is an All-American candidate, coach Thad Matta has no idea what he's going to get from game to game with his players.

"That's the thing every coach in the country is searching for right now in terms of getting his guys to be solid for 40 minutes and understand it's a game of runs and momentum," Matta said. "How do you build momentum, but more importantly how do you stop momentum?

"You do that just by being who you are and being consistent and sticking to the principles of what your defense and offense are."

Despite the season being past the midpoint and the Big Ten portion reaching halfway, Smith said they are still trying to figure out their respective places on the team.

"Guys are starting to slowly find out and incorporate what they are and what they're supposed to do and other guys are still fighting it," Smith said. "They want to be something that they don't necessarily need to be or asked to be."

No one has yet become a reliable second scorer to Thomas. At times it's Smith. At other times it's Craft or Ross and maybe even Thompson.

"Obviously everybody wants to be considered that guy that's the next scorer so everyone's focusing their attention on, 'I need to be that guy that can score the ball.' As far as the basketball team goes, that's not necessarily what we need to do to be winners," Smith said.

They've all said the offense isn't designed to get shots for one player but for all players. Matta says he is OK with a second scorer being an open-ended question.

"I like the fact that everybody on this team has had a certain juncture of big moments," he said. "What we try to do is get those guys mentally ready to play where they're playing their best basketball. If that happens, they're starting to see that it opens everything up for everybody else.

On Friday, Smith said he saw glimpses of this team figuring it out earlier in the morning in practice. Guys are getting more comfortable playing with one another and that should help the consistency issue.

"I think this is going to catapult us to the next level," Smith said. "We had guys all the way around playing their butts off and it was exciting to see."

As the calendar flips to February and questions about the team's makeup linger, Matta isn't sweating it.

"As long as the guys are defending, I'm fine and then the offense will take care of itself," he said.

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Buckeyes consistently inconsistent

The only thing consistent about this year's Buckeyes is their inconsistency.